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5 Palestinians Die in Gaza Feud

JERUSALEM, Feb. 24 — Five Palestinians were killed and more than 40 wounded in fighting between clans on Friday and early Saturday in Khan Yunis, a town in the southern Gaza Strip. Though the clashes were being portrayed in the Palestinian news media as a feud between families, they also took on a factional hue, since one of the families is identified with Hamas and the other with its political rival, Fatah.

The deaths raised fears of a possible round of revenge killings and renewed factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah after two weeks of relative calm. The fighting between Hamas and Fatah, which had killed almost 100 people in the Gaza Strip since December, eased after leaders of the groups signed an agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 8 to share power in a proposed national unity government.

The latest round of violence in Khan Yunis started late Friday with the fatal shooting of Muhammad Ali Ghalban, 27, a member of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam underground that is linked to Hamas, according to Palestinian news reports. Hamas said Mr. Ghalban was killed by armed men from the Kawareh family. The reports said the killing was apparently an act of revenge for the death of a Kawareh relative in factional fighting a month ago. A few hours later, Hazem Kawareh, 30, a Fatah supporter, and a passerby, Ismail Sabah, 73, were killed, according to Israeli and Palestinian news reports. Palestinian news reports listed the two other fatalities as Ghada Kawareh, 28, and Salama Abu Shabab, 55, although details of the killings were not provided.

Israeli forces also discovered a bomb-making factory in the West Bank city of Nablus during an overnight operation that ended Saturday, an army spokesman said. Five pipe bombs, two gas balloons, materials for bomb making and large quantities of shrapnel were found in the factory, situated in the Old City market area. Palestinians threw a grenade and opened fire on the soldiers, and one member of Islamic Jihad was arrested, the spokesman said.

The army spokesman also confirmed that the Egyptian police on Friday found a ton of explosives in the Sinai desert, near the border with the Gaza Strip. The discovery came as Egyptian forces scoured the area for Palestinian militants thought to have come to Sinai from Gaza with the intention of attacking Israeli tourists at resorts in the desert peninsula. Several Palestinians were arrested earlier in the week in the northern Sinai carrying explosives belts. Israeli authorities have warned Israeli tourists to leave Sinai resorts immediately.

On Friday, two Qassam rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip in the direction of Israeli communities across the border. They fell in open areas and caused no injuries. That brings the number of Qassam rockets launched from Gaza in the past week to 12, according to the Israeli Army, despite a cease-fire that was declared in November.

At a news conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel “would not restrain itself forever” in the face of the Qassam fire. “Israel’s patience is being tested too often. In the end, we will respond and reach out to those responsible,” he said, without specifying any timetable for action.

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The Israeli Channel 2 television broadcast excerpts from an interview with King Abdullah II of Jordan on Friday, in which he suggested that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was at a critical crossroad and that he believed this “really is the last opportunity for peace for all of us.”

Hearings Begin in Egypt Spy Case

CAIRO, Feb. 24 (Reuters) — An Egyptian man with Canadian citizenship standing trial here on Saturday denied spying for Israeli intelligence and said he had been forced to confess.

The defendant, Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, 31, denied any links with three people charged in absentia with recruiting him to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.

Egyptian prosecutors say Mr. Attar confessed that Israeli agents had helped him to obtain a residency permit in Canada under a false name and had found him a job at a bank.

They said that Mr. Attar, who was arrested at the airport in Cairo in January, was paid $56,000 to spy on Egyptians and Arabs during stays in Canada and Turkey and that he tried to obtain information on Egyptian Coptic Christians abroad.

Israel has dismissed the charges as baseless.

After Mr. Attar’s testimony, the trial was postponed until Wednesday.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Deaths in Palestinians’ Feud Raise Fears of New Violence. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe